Companies
Publishing platform Pratilipi seeks mainstream partnerships
Summary
- Pratilipi can license an intellectual property to make a show or use its own IP to develop and produce one
NEW DELHI : Online self-publishing and audiobook portal Pratilipi, which has diversified from text to audio and now comics, has found a bunch of mainstream partners to churn out different versions of its successful stories. From Disney+ Hotstar and Audible, the online audiobook service owned by Amazon, to music label and film production house T-Series, the company believes in keeping intellectual property (IP) at the centre of its strategies and leverages its literature to bring out podcasts, comics and, now, web series.
Launched in 2014 as a self-funded platform, Pratilipi had raised ₹30 lakh from TLabs (Times Internet Accelerator) in March 2015 and another $1 million from investors led by Nexus Venture Partners in 2016. In 2020, it launched two more storytelling platforms, Pratilipi Comics and Pratilipi FM, to expand into newer formats such as audio and graphics, and acquired podcast network IVM Podcasts the same year. It publishes content in 12 languages, of which English, Hindi and Gujarati are the most common.
“Stories were, are and will always be powerful. Languages and formats may change, but compelling stories will always travel across geographies and forms. That is why our aim was always to be a home for multilingual, multi-format storytelling," Ranjeet Pratap Singh, chief executive officer and co-founder, Pratilipi told Mint. Singh added that the company that started as a platform for users to publish stories, essays and poetry, has enough data to see which stories work across audience groups. The catalogue comprises over 13.5 million literary works, and the most popular titles include Pranayam, Anokhi Shadi, and Anni vaipulaa nannu allukundi nee kala.
This September, media and entertainment company Disney Star partnered with Pratilipi for a multi-series content deal that will allow the former to develop multiple new fiction television shows adapted from stories available on Pratilipi, intended to be broadcast across languages on Disney Star’s TV and digital platforms. In October, Pratilipi partnered with film and music production company T-Series for movie-to-comic book adaptations. Bhushan Kumar’s Yaariyan 2, the sequel to the Hindi-language romantic comedy-drama film Yaariyan (2014), was brought to life in a comic format by Pratilipi Comics. It’s 10 episodes were published across print and digital formats, in Hindi and English, and available to be read on Pratilipi Comics app for free.
“Our approach is to have IP ownership at the centre of all that we do. We look for the best IPs to leverage across formats, be it comics, audio, series, movies or games," he said. However, as far as partnerships with other media and entertainment companies go, Singh said collaborations take place in different ways; Pratilipi can license an IP to make a show or use its own IP to develop and produce one.
The company that is in active conversations across TV, OTT and audio platforms, prefers a fixed fee for such partnerships.
Singh said users are willing to pay for high-quality content in any format. “Our IPs have already proven themselves in one language or format so these are not just judgement calls we take without reason," he added.
